Sandia Extended Range Bomb (ERB) concept

[quellish]

In the late 1970s Sandia explored the design of a maneuvering glide bomb, the Extended Range Bomb:

The extended range bomb (ERB) is designed to provide a low altitude, 15 km stand-off or a 2.5 km turn radius, return-to-target (RTT) delivery capability from aircraft at
release speeds of 330-800 KCAS. The boosted, 41.9 cm diameter bomb utilizes two orthogonal pairs of pneumatically actuated canards for attitude control and lift. The guidance and control (G&C) system consists of a strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a digital computer containing an autopilot and navigator. Extensive wind tunnel tests were conducted to optimize the canard design. Two flight tests of instrumented full-scale vehicles were conducted to verify the design. The wind tunnel data are compared with theory and the verification flight tests are discussed.

"Aerodynamic Design of an Extended Range Bomb"

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/3.57916

"TIGER -- A technology to improve the delivery capability of nuclear bombs and the survivability of the delivery aircraft"

TIGER -- A technology to improve the delivery capability of nuclear bombs and the survivability of the delivery aircraft (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information

www.osti.gov

"Aeroballistic analysis of ERB/TIGER II Aerodynamic Test Unit ATU-2 (SLA R715032)"

Aeroballistic analysis of ERB/TIGER II Aerodynamic Test Unit ATU-2 (SLA R715032) (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information

www.osti.gov

The group that did this work then extended the work to a gliding reentry body, which became SWERVE.

 

[Scott Kenny]

That looks amazingly like the folding tail sections of the internal-carriage GBU-10.

Their example bomb shape is not a Mk80 series, however, looks more like a B61.